Overcoming Our Fighting Impulse | 1 Peter 3:8-12
Peter explains four keys to overcoming our misdirected fighting impulse: (1) believers; (2) blessing; (3) goodness; and (4) God. This sermon is part 5 in “A Fisherman’s Passion,” Bryan Craddock’s series on 1 Peter 2:11-5:14.
Do you think of yourself as a fighter? You might not ever throw an actual punch, but we still think of life in terms of conflict. It gives us the motivation to persevere when life is hard. We even find this mindset in the Bible. In 1 Timothy 6:12, the Apostle Paul himself tells his coworker Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith.
Of course, the New Testament describes the Christian’s battle as a spiritual one. When Paul writes those words to Timothy, he is not talking about hitting anyone. He tells him to flee from the love of money in the pursuit of righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness (v. 11). So, we must all fight against our own sinful desires.
But we do have spiritual enemies who seek to exploit those desires by tempting us. In Ephesians 6:11-12, Paul says,
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
The tricky part about this battle is that these spiritual forces seldom attack us directly. That would be too obvious. Instead, they work through proxies. In 2 Timothy 2:26, Paul explains that unbelievers are held captive by the devil to do his will. They are enslaved and blinded to God’s truth (Tit 3:3; 2 Cor 4:4). So, they become the devil’s instruments of temptation and opposition.
There is a diabolical brilliance to this strategy. Christians are called to imitate the compassion of Christ for lost people. Our mission is to lovingly share the truth of the gospel that can set them free. But we are instead tempted to treat them as enemies. We tell ourselves that we are fighting for righteousness, but we are playing right into Satan’s hands. We end up fighting the wrong battle, undermining our mission.
So, we must overcome our misdirected fighting impulse, and this is the driving concern in 1 Peter. Peter begins the letter by reminding his readers of the hope of the gospel because they were facing intense hostility. Then in verse 11 of chapter 2 he shifts his focus to how they should behave to support their witness to the gospel. Jesus called Peter to leave behind his fishing nets to become a fisher of men. That was his passion, and he argues that we should all be willing to endure suffering for that purpose.
So, he tells Christians to honor government authorities though they were far from righteous. He tells slaves to submit to unjust treatment from their masters. He also instructs Christian women to trust God as they seek to win their unbelieving husbands to salvation through gentle and quiet submission. Then in verses 8-12 of chapter 3, he finishes off this section on humble behavior before moving on to say more about persevering under suffering. He addresses all believers and explains four keys to overcome our misdirected fighting impulse.
Believers
Despite all the talk about electric vehicles over the past few years, most people still want cars that run on gasoline. We don’t want to find a charging station and then sit around waiting for a half hour. We want to fuel up quickly. We even pay at the pump, so that we don’t need to talk to anyone. We want to get on our way without anything hindering our personal plans.
I suspect that some Christians approach the church that way. They want a quick fill-up of spiritual affirmation so that they can get on their way without anything hindering their personal plans. They slip in and out of a worship service without talking to anyone or just listen to a message online while they are doing other things. As a result, they are always running on empty. To have true spiritual endurance, particularly in facing opposition, you need to take the time to plug in to the network of believers.
Peter makes this point in 1 Peter 3:8. He has been talking about relating to the world and he will return to that subject in verse 9. But he abruptly shifts focus and says, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”
Most translations begin this verse with the word “finally” or the phrase “to sum up.” But since this statement comes in the middle of the letter, that reading makes it seem as if Peter is rambling. He is not! I think a better translation is “to this end.” He is explaining how a Christian can persevere under immoral rulers, in slavery, or in a marriage to an unbeliever. In the original Greek, he lists five adjectives that describe how we should connect with other believers.
First, we need to have unity of mind. Some take this to mean that there should be uniformity in our thinking. But the New Testament itself demonstrates the value of having different perspectives from different authors who state things in different ways. A more literal translation of the word here might be “together minded.” To persevere in the face of opposition, we need to engage our minds with fellow believers. It is a two-way process of sharing and listening as we seek to understand and apply God’s Word.
Second, we need to have sympathy. This Greek term combines words for together and suffering. In addition to our mental connection, we need an emotional connection to persevere. Paul describes it in Romans 12:15 by saying, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” So, you must be open to share your life, but you cannot just be consumed by your own feelings. You must identify with others in their victories and struggles.
Third, we need to have brotherly love. Since we become brothers and sisters in Christ, we should have a family commitment to one another. Here again this requires personal engagement, giving and receiving. It cannot be selective. As James 2:1 says, there should be no partiality or favoritism. In Romans 15:7, Paul says, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” We will form deeper relationships with some rather than others, but no one should be ignored in our fellowship.
Fourth, Peter says that we need a tender heart. We should develop a deep Christ-like compassion for one another. Paul uses the same word in Ephesians 4:32 when he says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Believers are not perfect. We can be careless and rude. So, to preserve our connection we must be willing to forgive and overlook such behavior.
Fifth, we need a humble mind. We cannot exalt ourselves. In Philippians 2:3, Paul says that this quality should lead us to count others more significant than yourself. It also means that we must be teachable. We cannot assume that we have all the answers or that we are always right. Peter will return to this idea in chapter 5 as he speaks of relating to leaders in the church.
With relationships like these, we might be tempted to withdraw from the world entirely. Why not hide away in our own Christian communities? That would be like leaving the electric vehicle hooked up to the charger all the time. We were made to go places and to be salt and light in the world. Christian isolation, however, is rooted in a selfishness that inevitably distorts fellowship. It becomes all about our wants and desires, so we end up fighting one another and the world. A healthy, balanced relationship with believers is key to overcoming our fighting impulse.
Blessing
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out”? It is used regarding computers. They are just machines. So, if you enter bad information, you receive a bad result.
Many in our society take a similar view of people. If someone has lived through a lot of garbage, how could you ever expect him or her to rise above it? That may sound compassionate, but it makes someone a slave to their circumstances. Of course, part of the appeal may be that we all find some comfort in blaming our garbage output on what we have experienced. It gives us an excuse for responding poorly in times of conflict.
The gospel changes that formula, however. In Christ, we can rise above garbage in, garbage out. We can overcome our fighting impulse through a second key: blessing. In 1 Peter 3:9, Peter says, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”
We typically reserve the word “evil” for extreme behavior. You can do a lot of bad things before someone labels it evil. We find that extreme sense in the New Testament when Satan is called “the evil one.” But Peter uses a different Greek word in this passage. We could simply translate it as, “bad.” Don’t respond badly, when people treat you badly or even when their treatment ranks as evil.
We have the same problem with the word “reviling.” It sounds extreme to us, but it’s not. It refers to someone speaking from a condescending heart. John 9:28 tells us that the Jewish leaders reviled the blind man that Jesus healed by saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.” That was certainly not an insult, but they meant for it to be. So, when people speak that way to you, don’t respond in kind.
Peter tells us to respond with blessing. Here again, you might think of blessing as an extremely lofty religious statement. But at its core to bless someone is simply to speak well of them. It is often associated with praying for them. Luke 6:28, for instance, tells us that Jesus said, “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
Why should we bless and pray for those who oppose us? Peter says, “for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” On its own, his statement sounds like a generic principle that when you bless people good things happen to you. But that reading does not fit with the overall argument of the letter.
Elsewhere Peter uses the word “call” to describe God’s saving work in our lives. In verse 9 of chapter 2, he speaks of God calling us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Then later in verse 10 of chapter 5, he says that God has called us to his eternal glory in Christ. So, the reason to bless others is that God has called us to inherit the ultimate blessing of eternal life.
When that day comes, the outpouring of God’s blessing will wash away all the garbage from our lives. The anticipation of that experience is what enables us to bless people here and now no matter how much garbage they dump on us. His blessing should overflow in our lives in everything we say and do. God’s blessing is a powerful key to overcome our fighting impulse.
Goodness
Hard work takes a toll on your body. If you spend all day gripping a hammer, your palm becomes callused. That thick, hardened skin is beneficial in that it shields you from pain, but it comes at a price. It deadens your sense of touch. You lose the ability to feel.
When we go through hard times, our hearts can become callused. We develop a numbness to pain, and that can seem good. But the problem is that it also leaves us dead to the holy passion and joy that should be part of the Christian life. So, a third key to overcoming our fighting impulse is goodness. In 1 Peter 3:10-11, Peter says,
For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
Peter draws these words from Psalm 34:12-14. David wrote them after being on the run from King Saul. He was one of the king’s most loyal supporters, but Saul became intensely jealous of his success in battle and sought to kill him. David reached such a low point that he fled to Israel’s enemies and pretended to be insane. In this psalm, he refocuses his heart and mind on God’s goodness.
We need to go through a similar process as we endure hard times. David speaks of the fundamental desire to love life and see good days. But in times of great hardship, we are tempted to give up on that. If we do, we lose the motivation to control our speech. We resort to bad talk, constant complaining and negativity. We become obsessed with everything that is wrong in the world. We become argumentative and even deceitful, losing touch with the truth.
Loving goodness is so important that in Titus 1:8, Paul lists it as one of the qualifications for elders. This outlook is anchored in the ultimate goodness of Christ’s return and the full expression of God’s kingdom in a new heaven and earth. But it also recognizes and seeks the goodness of God in the little things of life here and now. We find this mindset in the book of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon speaks of enjoying food, drink, marriage, and work.
When you have a godly love life and a desire to see good days, it changes how you behave. It leads us to turn away from bad, to do good, and to seek peace. It helps us see the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 4:6, which says, “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” We don’t have to turn every disagreement into an argument. Some things can simply be overlooked. So, don’t lose touch with the simple desire for goodness.
God
In talking about overcoming our fighting impulse, the elephant in the room is the Old Testament. It is full of fighting and even glorifies it by celebrating the accomplishments of mighty warriors like David. So, when Christians want to take a hostile stance toward the world, they are quick to turn there for support. What is wrong with that way of thinking?
To begin with, the church of Jesus Christ is an international movement that proclaims salvations and seeks to make disciples of all nations. Old Testament Israel was a nation that God used as an instrument of his judgment against other evil nations. But the problem they had was that rather than living righteously, they kept behaving like those other nations. They lost sight of their relationship with God.
We have the same problem. When we fixate on the opposition that we face in the world, we are tempted to behave like the world. So, it may sound simplistic to say it this way, but remembering our relationship with God is key to overcoming our fighting impulse.
Peter makes this point as he continues his quote from Psalm 34. In 1 Peter 3:12, he says,
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Peter has been arguing that believers should not respond to evil with evil. David was making the same argument in Psalm 34. So, at the end of the verse he says that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. They stand condemned and worthy of his judgment. Why would you copy them or adopt their tactics?
The righteous, on the other hand, are watched by the Lord. In other words, they are under his protection. They also have access to him. He hears their prayer. So, rather than copying evil, the righteous should walk by faith. They should be confident and unafraid.
One of my favorite expressions of this confidence in the Old Testament is Exodus 14:13-14. The people of Israel are standing at the edge of the Red Sea, and the Egyptians are ready to attack them. We’re told,
And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
God wants us to trust him today. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are made righteous in his eyes. His eyes are upon us, and his ears are open to our prayer. So, don’t allow yourself to get drawn into copying the world’s hostility. Trust God and let him do the fighting in his way on his schedule.
__________
So, to overcome our fighting impulse we must remember these four keys. First, we need the support of a vital mental, emotional, and relational connection with other believers. Second, we must be filled and guided by the promise of God’s blessing. Third, we should love and enjoy the goodness that God gives us in life here and now. Finally, we should remember the confidence that we have in our relationship with God.
Do you have a relationship with him? If not, you can turn to him today. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Receive the blessing of salvation and begin to follow the Lord. If you would like to learn more about salvation and how it changes our relationship to the world, Titus 3 would be a good chapter to read.
If you’re already a believer, have you been fighting the wrong battle? Are you negative, angry, and argumentative, perhaps even hostile? Has that spilled over into your relationships with people? If so, you may need to seek someone’s forgiveness, confessing that your behavior has fallen short of what Jesus wants. Do it for the sake of the gospel! We all could probably benefit from focusing on one of these four keys.
May God help us to be channels of his blessing!
Reflect
What are some of the obstacles we face in relating to one another as Peter describes in verse 8? How can we overcome them?
What are some practical ways to bless people who revile us?
What steps could you take to increase your focus on loving and doing good?